Boston Bruins winger Milan Lucic was today announced as one of 46 invitees to attend Canada’s National Men’s Team orientation camp from August 24-27 in Calgary. The camp will be used as a tool to pick the team that will compete at the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver in February.

The 21-year-old Lucic just completed his second NHL season, during which he set career-highs for goals (17), assists (25) and points (42). (more…)

“He has power forward qualities from the blue line in. He’s the type of player who doesn’t like being denied access to the net. You can almost see when he’s got the puck he’s going to the net and defying people to stop him. He’ll be a 200-pound forward in the National Hockey League. He plays like he’s 6-2, 6-3, bigger than his size. He’s surprised a lot of people with his strength going to the net.”

Does the currently 6-foot-1, 176-pound sound like someone? How about Boston Bruins 6-3, 228-pound winger Milan Lucic, Kane’s former captain and mentor with the ’07 Memorial Cup-winning Giants club? (more…)

When his rookie season concluded, Lucic said his goal over the summer was to improve enough that he could return for the 2008-09 season as a fixture among the Bruins’ top six forwards. Well, except for a few short stints on the club’s fourth line, Lucic spent this season banging bodies and creating room for some of his most-skilled teammates on one of Boston’s top two lines. And he wasn’t just a physical presence on those lines, as Lucic displayed improved hands and offensive dexterity throughout his impressive sophomore season. (more…)

No. 12 on this all-encompassing list, none other than Montreal Canadiens defenseman Mike Komisarek. Now for the most part I’ve been a fan of Komisarek. Prior to his crosscheck to the head of Milan Lucic near the end of Game 4 of the Boston Bruins’ Eastern Conference quarterfinal series with the Habs (see below), the former Michigan standout has always been a pretty stand-up guy. (more…)

BOSTON — He’s the spark plug Johnny Damon was for the 2004 Red Sox, the straw that stirs the drink — to steal a phrase from Reggie Jackson — and a leader even John Wayne would follow into battle.

Technically he’s not old enough to drink yet in this country, but with game-changing performances like the one he produced tonight in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinal series at TD Banknorth Garden, 20-year-old Milan Lucic should be able to have his choice of celebratory postgame beverages.

With the Bruins fighting for their playoff lives, Lucic answered the bell and set the tone for a hard-hitting, high-flying, 4-0 win over the Carolina Hurricanes, who still lead the series 3-2 heading back to Raleigh for Game 6 Tuesday. (more…)

MONTREAL — We’ll never knowhow Mike Komisarek would’ve handled the post-series handshake after the Boston Bruins completed a four-game sweep tonight in the Eastern Conference quarterfinals at Bell Centre because the Montreal Canadiens defenseman was sent to the showers early with a game misconduct for cross checking Bruins winger Milan Lucic with 7:21 left in the contest.

We do know that Lucic had no problem, after a hard-fought series and a 4-1 Boston Game 4 win, skating through the handshake without incident, unless you count the bear hug he got from former Bruins center Glen Metropolit — who like his Habs teammates is heading home for the spring.

Lucic and Komisarek are longtime on-ice rivals dating back to last year’s playoff series, which the Habs won in seven games. In the second period tonight, things boiled over with the briefest of fights. Lucic leveled Komisarek with one mighty blow. Then in the third period came the crosscheck that ended Komisarek’s evening.

“I just went in and finished my check and he felt like he needed to crosscheck. I could stand here and talk about (it) and be unclassy and all those types of things, but really it feels a lot better when you win a series, so it doesn’t really hurt after that,” said Lucic, who was cut above his left cheek by the crosscheck. (more…)

MONTREAL — The Boston Bruins skated this morning at Bell Centre in preparation for Game 3 of their Eastern Conference quarterfinal series with the Montreal Canadiens.

While his teammates went through line drills, winger Milan Lucic stood at the red line near the official scorer’s booth watching with a look on his face like a kid on the playground that no one will play with. At one point he took a swipe at Marc Savard as the center skated by. But Lucic missed and Savard didn’t stop to mess around.

It’s tough when you’ve been handed a one-game suspension by the NHL for a “reckless and forceful blow to the head of his opponent,” as the league deemed his hit on Maxim Lapierre in Game 2 of this series when it announced the suspension last night.

“Obviously it was a decision made by (NHL disciplinarian) Colin Campbell. Obviously you know you’ve got to respect his decision,” Lucic said after the skate. “He has one of the hardest jobs when it comes to hockey so he made his decision that he felt was right and I respect the decision.”

Lucic, who helped the Bruins jump out to a 2-o lead in the series, also accepted some of the blame for taking an action that required league review.

“I guess you can say I’m a little bit disappointed in myself because I think our team’s done a reall good job of being disciplined this whole series,” he explained. “So there’s a little bit of disappointment now.

“I think that’s the biggest thing that I can take out of this is you learn from this, you take a lot out of this. It’s the playoffs, so you really can’t do things like to jeopardize your team.” (more…)

BOSTON — The joy of the Boston Bruins’ 5-1 win over Montreal in Game 2 of their Eastern Conference quarterfinal series tonight at TD Banknorth Garden was tempered a bit by a late-game hit Milan Lucic made on Canadiens agitator Maxim Lapierre with 4:32 left in the game.

Lapierre skated at Lucic in front of the Montreal goal after Lucic and Habs defenseman Mathieu Schneider exchanged pleasantries. You can see the hit in the clip below, but Lucic seemed to catch Lapierre in the head with either his glove or his stick. Either way, he is definitely still holding his stick when he hits him. And what was originally announced as a fighting penalty was changed to a match penalty. That means Lucic is suspended upon review.

While Lucic was unavailable to the media after the game, Bruins head coach Claude Julien defended his player.

“I think in Looch’s situation, obviously he might’ve lost his composure a little bit in that area. But what you’ve got to remember is he got elbowed in the head and then high sticked by Schneider. And then Lapierre comes in — Lapierre, who’s been an instigator throughout the whole series and even during the regular season. And what Looch did is react to him coming at him. It wasn’t premeditated and in reviewing it, he hit him with his glove. He had his stick in his hands, but the glove hit the helmet,” said Julien. (more…)

BOSTON — Tempers were flaring and his team had already racked up 21 minutes of penalties through just a little more than 28 minutes of game time.

Winger Milan Lucic had been responsible for four of those penalty minutes with a pair of roughing calls. So when he spun through the neutral zone and long-time nemesis Mike Komisarek stepped up at the Canadiens’ blue line and threw a hit that caught Lucic in the numbers, it wasn’t surprising to see the second-year winger snapped a bit.

Lucic chased the Montreal defenseman deep into the Habs’ zone — where Boston tough guy Shawn Thornton had already gone after Komisarek. When Lucic got near his target, he wrapped his arms around Komisarek’s face from behind and scored a takedown. Not much ensued after that and Komisarek seemed to avoid injury. But whether Lucic avoids suspension will be determined by how much NHL disciplinarian Colin Campbell is willing to chalk it up to heat-of-the-moment and also accept Lucic’s admittance of wrongdoing after the Bruins’ 5-4 overtime win tonight at TD Banknorth Garden.

“Not much,” Lucic said when asked what he was thinking during his pursuit of Komisarek. “I mean, looking back, maybe I shouldn’t have went to that extreme. Maybe I lost my temper a little bit. But it’s part of the game and it happens.” (more…)

WILMINGTON, Mass. — With only five NHL fighting majors on his resume before he dropped the gloves with Boston Bruins forward and noted pugilist Milan Lucic last night at TD Banknorth Garden, Tampa Bay defenseman Josef Melichar might be forgiven for not having the fight scouting report fresh in his mind when threw an elbow at the Boston winger.

That might be why Melichar was completely unprepared for Lucic’s left hook and how much it would hurt. Here’s a look at the abridged fight.

Luckily for Melichar (whose career fight card, according to hockeyfights.com, includes an ’01 bout with Zdeno Chara), Lucic knows and adheres to “The Code.” So when Melichar put his head down, it was fight over. (more…)

When it comes to Boston Bruins winger Milan Lucic, the sophomore jinx is obviously as fictious as Jason Voorhees of “Friday the 13th” fame.

One year after skating in 77 NHL games and posting 8-19-27 totals as a 19-year-old, all Lucic has done in the 2008-09 season is get better in every way. He’s put up 14-22-36 totals and a plus-12 rating (as opposed to minus-2 last season) in 63 games.

That’s not to say that Lucic hasn’t gone through some rough patches. With his goal against New Jersey Sunday, he snapped a 15-game goal-less drought that might’ve been a sign of a struggle. But with Lucic, the goals are the last thing you look at to determine whether he’s been producing. You watch him on the forecheck, you watch him in the corners and in front of the net. Is he making the opponent pay for getting in his way? Is he clearing room for his teammates to make plays? The answer almost all season has been a resounding yes. (more…)

By the way, the Boston Bruins actually practiced today at Ristuccia Arena in Wilmington while everyone’s eyes were glued to the trade deadline.

And there was some big news, as winger Milan Lucic, out since last Thursday with an upper-body injury, declared himself ready to return to action. Head coach Claude Julien was only willing to commit to the notion that Lucic is a possibility to play against Phoenix tomorrow night, but the day-to-day forward said he expects to play.

As for what set off Lucic and made him pummel Anaheim’s Mike Brown in a one-sided fight that’s widely believed to have been when Lucic suffered his injury, Lucic offered this take:

“I just drove the net and … as I recall and as I look at the replays and stuff, I did everything I could to try to get out of the goalie’s way. I didn’t even touch the goalie at all. Three of them came up to me and next thing I knew, Brown dropped his gloves. (more…)

WILMINGTON, Mass. — Although usual defenseman Matt Hunwick was again skating as a forward during Boston Bruins practice today at Ristuccia Arena, that role might not last very long.

Head coach Claude Julien revealed after practice that winger Milan Lucic, who missed Saturday’s game against Washington with an upper-body injury, is “a possibility for tomorrow,” when the Bruins will host Philadelphia at TD Banknorth Garden.

Lucic skated with his teammates today in a red non-contact jersey. He was not made available to the media after the session.

The Bruins’ other red, no-contact player today was Petteri Nokelainen, who has been out since early last month with an eye injury. He is scheduled to see a doctor Tuesday, according to Julien. That’s when Nokelainen will find out if he’s going to be cleared for contact drills.

It was a rough week to be a member of the Boston Bruins. A team that was cruising along, even during the toughest portion of its schedule to date, Boston hit a bump in the road with an 0-2-1 week against San Jose, New Jersey and Nashville.

But I still have to pick a Bruin of the Week. And even though he tapered out in the shootout loss to Nashville Saturday with just one hit and no points, winger Milan Lucic had the best week of any individual wearing black and gold.

One of the few bright spots in the 5-2 loss to San Jose, Lucic potted both Boston goals and also threw five hits in what might’ve been his best game since returning from an upper-body injury late last month. Two nights later in New Jersey, he didn’t hit the scoreboard. But Lucic threw three more hits against a rugged Devils team.

Looking ahead, Lucic’s contributions will continue to be increased in importance as this week unfolds, with the Bruins playing three games all on the road — and probably continuing to do so down a top-nine forward or two.

Lucic missed Thursday night’s game in Ottawa because his left foot had swollen up after it was hit by a Ward shot during the Bruins’ win at Philadelphia Wednesday. Today Lucic skated with a extra padding above the spot where he was hit (right on the laces) and said he should be good to play against the Flyers tomorrow in a Garden matinee.

“It’s made a lot of progress from yesterday morning to yesterday night. So it’s feeling pretty good right now,” he said as he undressed in the Bruins’ locker room. (more…)